You have high-quality products in your online store, but do you find it difficult to get your customers to keep coming back? Managing an online store is not a cakewalk. You never know when your customers will switch over to one of your competitors.
What can you do?
You can leverage the advanced evolution of traditional endorsement and testimonial advertising practices to grow your business fast. Customers usually opt for brands that are recommended by celebrities or influential people they relate to.
Yes, you've got it right: Consumers have a lot of belief in influencers and influencer marketing. Spending your time attempting to use every new marketing fad you can will ultimately backfire. You need to find effective strategies and follow them consistently if you want your store to be successful. That’s exactly what we are going to cover in this post!
First, let's go through the fundamentals. What exactly is influencer marketing?
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a marketing approach that makes use of influencers' ability to increase brand recognition, product sales, and client loyalty. These influencers are frequently social media stars and bloggers who, thanks to their sizable fan bases, excellent content, authenticity, and audience credibility, can have an impact on purchasing decisions.
Indeed, influencer marketing has helped countless brands make a smooth transition from challenger brands to industry leaders. By the end of 2022, it is anticipated that the influencer industry will grow to $15 billion.
For instance, MVMT Watches works with influencers from all walks of life. They partnered with a beauty and travel influencer, Stephanie Danielle, on Instagram. To promote their watches through influencer marketing on Twitter, they collaborated with fitness influencer, Tim Rodriguez, and micro-influencer, SimplyLaura.
Before you try your hands at influencer marketing, let’s go over some tactics which will help you to grow your business rapidly. Read on!
1. Choose a platform that fits with your brand.
What are the expectations of your target audience from each social media platform? What platform best meets their requirements?
The most well-known influencers combine content from many platforms including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, and others. Different formats, strategies, objectives, and target audiences are best served by different platforms.
According to Mediakix's survey, Instagram is the best platform to perform strategically. A whopping 83% of consumers say they use Instagram to find new goods or services.
For instance, with their cheery green box, lovely pre-packaged components, and delectable finished meals, HelloFresh is a perfect pick for Instagram influencer marketing. Additionally, HelloFresh's influencer marketing strategy focuses mostly on Instagram micro-influencers from a variety of different industries.
2. Be relevant.
It should go without saying that you should only approach influencers about endeavors that will have an impact on your audience. Irrelevant pitches are the primary cause of the majority of missed opportunities. Needless to say, a lot of us continue to misunderstand this.
Only when a relationship is mutually beneficial can influencer marketing work. Don’t contact someone just because they’re an influencer or because they create engaging content. Make sure they’re also in your niche and that they’ll be able to reach your target audience.
It’s okay – even encouraged – to be picky!
3. Use brand links to track performance.
Tracking links are a great way to precisely track how an influencer marketing campaign affects your conversion rates. You can track exactly how much traffic and how many conversions an influencer brings to your website by adding UTM parameters to the links that they share.
This information is available in Google Analytics together with other campaign indicators, which will enable you to determine whether or not the investment was worthwhile.
4. Decide on your content strategy.
Video is an incredibly effective and entertaining approach to sharing important information with users. You can use videos to convey your message in a skillful and captivating manner.
It wouldn't be very useful, though, to make a video that raves endlessly about how great your products or services are. To capture the interest of your target audience, you should instead create an intriguing story about your company by keeping a customer-centric approach during your content creation process.
AXE, a men’s grooming, and lifestyle brand, partnered with 30 male influencers to promote their hair products. Each of the influencers created unique content in their own unique voice to maintain authenticity. Josh Elkin, a food influencer, created a video in which he spoke about how the product helps him keep his hair off his breakfast.
Compared to brand messaging, 63% of customers trust influencer messages more. You can also choose some of the best influencer agencies for your campaign.
5. Make a budget and management plan.
Take into account how much time you'll need to create, implement, and assess your influencer strategy.
A one-size-fits-all strategy cannot be used to build a successful influencer marketing campaign. It will require careful monitoring and follow-up instead. Influencers frequently juggle multiple partnerships, so some can forget to post on time or use the wrong tags or CTAs that you requested.
Additionally, personalization will be required based on your target demographic and the influencer you are working with.
For instance, Chanel leveraged influencers to promote the launch of the Chanel No. 5 L’Eau perfume. They invited popular Instagram influencers to a retreat at their production facilities in France to give them a personalized experience.
There, they showcased how Chanel uses real flowers to manufacture their perfumes. And of course, to build awareness about the new product.
Their strategy was successful when popular fashion influencers like Juliane Diesner posted about her personal experiences across various social media platforms.
You must focus on developing lasting relationships, and gradually modify your approach as you discover what works and what doesn't in your sector.
6. Convert brand loyalists into influencers.
The ideal tactic for influencer marketing is thought to be capitalizing on current brand devotees. Your devoted clients are in the ideal position to advertise your products or services. Actual people are more credible than those who hold an influencer title.
If you already have a sizable following on social media, you may not need to recruit influencers. Your next brand ambassador may be right in front of you. Simply keep tabs on your social media posts and identify potential brand ambassadors' abilities through their actions to classify them as possible brand ambassadors.
Start a referral program on social media or launch a review writing campaign among your current customers to optimize the benefits and streamline your search.
7. Measure analytics.
Keeping an eye on your analytics will put you in a better position to modify and improve your campaign based on what is and isn't working. You can steer your influencer towards the proper path during the campaign by being aware of the sources of traffic and the gaps you're still missing.
You can even agree on timeframes for when you will share and discuss the results with your influencer, such as 24 hours, 48 hours, and one week after your live date.
For example: If you and the influencer have agreed that they will share a number of posts about your product, you should check the platform's analytics. Determine how many people have seen the relevant posts and whether they have converted into customers within 24 hours of the post going live.
If the influencer shares a coupon code for one of your products or a special discount, you want to have goals to meet over the course of a predetermined time period. Metrics should be measured based on data and outcomes that are significant to your campaign and approved by your influencer.
8. Analyze your competitors.
Knowing what your rivals are doing will help you develop an effective influencer marketing plan. Consider which types of content are the most engaging to them on the platforms where they are active.
Identify whether or not the audience responds and if the feedback they receive from their social media influencer marketing efforts is adequate. Take notes on the errors they are making so you can avoid them with your future content strategy. It's important to remember that you won't always achieve the same outcomes when you try to mimic another brand's influencer marketing strategy.
9. Don’t make a decision too quickly.
I’ve already mentioned that you need to keep track of everything. And, although I really believe in that advice, I also think it would be premature to draw conclusions about the success of any influencer marketing effort based solely on the initial analytics of your campaign.
Influencer marketing is different from paid search, where you can quickly calculate the ROI of a campaign or advertisement. Influencer marketing resembles SEO a little more because it takes longer to see results and is more difficult to link one to the other.
If you're employing the aforementioned tactics, you ought to be working to establish lasting bonds with influential people. Assuming you are, you should wait before judging whether or not a campaign is effective.
If you believe things aren't going in the right direction, speak with the influencer before pulling the plug. They might be able to alter their strategy or provide you with assurances about when to start expecting results.
Ready to start your influencer campaign?
For small brands, collaborating with influencers has been shown to be a beneficial marketing technique. It's absolutely worth a try, given that 48% of consumers turn to influencers for shopping advice. It's up to you how you collaborate with your influencers effectively. You determine their level of involvement.
Now that you're prepared to include influencer marketing in your marketing plan, it's time to start with a strategy. Like any effective marketing technique, developing a strategy can guarantee that you're being methodical and comprehensive. Influencer marketing can help you achieve specific goals, and you'll have a system in place for monitoring your success along the way.